Valve assembly



March 1969 H. A. CUBBERLEY ETAL 3,433,255

VALVE ASSEMBLY Filed Feb. 5. 1966 27 |26- 39 I I 4o\ 38 I! I9 l I K INVENTORS HAROLD A. CUBBERLEY EDMUND ABEL, JR.

JOHN E. SACKETT BY MM M ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,433,255 VALVE ASSEMBLY Harold A. Cubberley, Chagrin Falls, Edmund Abel, Jr.,

Rocky River, and John E. Sackett, Mentor, Ohio, assignor to The Service Recorder Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Feb. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 524,942 US. Cl. 137-510 Int. Cl. F16k 7/00 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to an automatic flow valve assembly for use in metered fuel oil heating systems and the like.

A typical system on this order will comprise a fuel oil storage tank serving a plurality of oil burners through individual consumer lines, and each individual line will include a manual shut-off valve, a filter, and a flow meter for measuring and recording in suitable fashion the actual consumption of the particular individual unit served. The fuel oil should, of course, only flow while the burner functions in its normal manner upon demand for heat, and each installation should be provided with some form of automatic protection against any delivery of oil when the burner is not operative, primarily because of the obvious fire hazard which would be created by such a malfunction. The provision of a valve assembly to be included in such a fuel oil delivery line to control the flow automatically in response to burner operation is a principal object of this invention.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved valve assembly for such purpose which is normally closed and will open only upon the occurrence of a vacuum at the discharge or delivery side, whereby the opening of the valve can be made to depend exclusively on the turning on of the burner by its conventional controls.

Another object is to provide such an assembly in which the flow valving components are of special configuration to improve the operation of the valve, with still more particular regard to elimination of the tendency for conventional elements to flutter or rapidly oscillate between the open and closed conditions upon actuation. The operation of the new valve is smooth and quiet, with this last being a particularly desirable feature in a residential heating system.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawing setting forth in detail a certain illustrative embodiment of the invention, this being indicative, however, of but one of the various Ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:

FIG. 1 is a partially schematic illustration of a repre- 3,433,255 Patented Mar. 18, 1969 sentative fuel oil heating system in which a valve assembly in accordance with the present invention is incorporated; and

FIG. 2 is a cross section of the valve assembly on a relatively enlarged scale.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the illustrated heating system comprises a supply pipe or line 10 from any suitable source of the fuel oil to be burned, such as a directly connected storage tank or a main line serving a number of burners at different locations. The oil burner is designated by reference numeral 11 and is entirely conventional, while the box 12 is intended to represent generally an associated furnace.

The delivery of the oil from the local supply pipe 10 is manually controlled by a shut-off valve 13, and the flow beyond such valve is measured and recorded in a low fiow meter 14 to provide a record of actual consumption. A filter 15 is preferably added just ahead of the meter to keep impurities from the latter, one example of such a meter being provided by The Service Recorder Company of Cleveland, Ohio, under the name Servis Fuelometer. Reference numeral 16 designates generally the valve assembly which forms the subject matter of the present invention, and it will be seen that this assembly is at the delivery side of the meter with a connected pipe 17 extending to the burner at a lower elevation.

The valve assembly 16 comprises a cylindrical body 18 having an externally threaded sleeve extension 19 of slightly reduced diameter at one end. An axial cylindrical chamber 20 is formed in the body open at the end face within the sleeve extension. The chamber wall is threaded as shown at 21 adjacent this end, and the other end 22 is closed. There is a radial tapped inlet 23 which communicates with the axial chamber 20 and is formed to accept a conventional pipe fitting. The body is also provided with an outlet in the form of a tapped radial hole 24 and an axial continuation passage 25 to the body end face enclosed by the sleeve 19, with this face and the sleeve defining an end chamber 26 of substantial diameter.

The end chamber 26 is closed by a circular diaphragm 27 made of a suitable elastomeric material which will not be adversely affected by exposure to the fuel oil. The edge of the diaphragm overlies the end of the sleeve extension 19, as shown, and reinforcing plates 28 and 29 are provided and assembled to support the diaphragm therebetween in usual manner. A diaphragm gasket 30 is applied against the outer side of the diaphragm at the periphery thereof, and a cap 31 is threaded on the sleeve extension of the body to enclose the diaphragm. For a purpose to be later described, this cap has a center hole 32 in which a push-button 33 is positioned, with intentional clearance between the two.

It will be noted that the axial chamber 20 of the body extends considerably beyond the intersection with the inlet 23 and this inner end portion forms a smooth wall cylinder of substantial diameter. A specially formed piston 34 is received in fairly close by sliding fit in such cylinder section but there are no seals therebetween as apparent from FIG. 2 of the drawing, whereby fuel may leak around the piston 34 to provide a dash-pot action during opening and closing movements thereof, as explained hereafter. A bias spring 35 between the end wall 22 and the piston as shown normally urges the piston outwardly or upwardly as viewed in FIG. 2. At its outer or upper end, the piston carries a valve element section 36, which is shown as integrally formed for convenient production, with this valve section of noticeably smaller diameter and provided at its end with a continuous elastomeric ring 37 seated in a groove. A valve seat member 38 is threaded in the end portion of the chamber 20 and has a central passage 39 the major extent of which is of a diameter slightly less than half the diameter of the piston. The seal ring 37 is of such relative diameter as to engage closely about the inner end of the passage 39 in the closed condition of the valve, and a valve plunger 40 extends freely through the passage with its ends respectively in sockets provided in the piston 34 and the diaphragm reinforcing plate 28.

It will be apparent that the outlet 24 of the valve body receives the standard connection for the pipe 17 leading from the valve 16 to the oil burner 11. The oil flows from the meter to the valve inlet 23 and, when the piston 34 retracts the 'valve section 36 sufficiently against the force of spring 35, the flow continues through the seat member passage 39 and the end diaphragm chamber 26 to the outlet 24. As a result of the clearance provided around the push button 33 in the cap 32, the space at the outer or upper side of the diaphragm 27 will always be at atmospheric pressure, and the button can be pushed inwardly to manually flex the diaphragm downwardly and effect opening of the valve by the plunger 40 depressing the piston 34. This manual operation provides conditioning of the line 17 by filling the same with the fuel oil between the valve assembly and the burner, for example, when the system is first installed. The oil in this length of the line will provide a pressure head at the burner because of the noted difference in elevation.

When this conditioning exists, the turning on of the burner in its normal controlled operation will create a vacuum in the diaphragm chamber 26 and the diaphragm will flex inwardly or downwardly to depress the piston and open the passage 39 to establish the flow for the period of burner operation. When the burner stops, the pressure equilibrium will be restored and the piston is released by the diaphragm retraction to close the valve. It will also be appreicated that if there is any break in the line to the burner or leakage, the valve cannot be operated to the open condition, so that the desired protection is realized. The size of the diaphragm and the separation of the valve assembly from the burner are factors which determine the vacuum effective to actuate the valve, and a vacuum on the order of one inch has been preferred in a typical residential heating system.

The piston 34, with a diameter slightly more than twice the size of the valved passage 39 in the preferred illustrated embodiment and dash-pot action previously mentioned, ensures smooth and stable operation of the valve, with no tendency to flutter or exhibit periods of rapid oscillation in the movement between the open and closed conditions. Since such flutter is usually noisy, the newly provided stabilization also is beneficial in providing quiet operation.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the details described, provided the features stated in the following claim or the equivalent of such be employed.

We, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as our invention:

1. In a fuel line for an oil furnace and the like, an automatic control valve assembly comprising a body having first and second chambers, the first chamber being cylindrical and having an axial length which is greater than the diameter thereof, a communicating passage between one end of the first chamber and the second, said communicating passage being relatively small in relation to the diameter of the first passage, the first chamber having an inlet and the second an outlet, a piston valving member in the first chamber having a body section in sliding engagement with the chamber wall over the major extent of the latter, means permitting leakage around the piston valving member thus to provide restricted communication between the inlet and the first chamber behind the piston valving member, a spring between said body section and the end of the first chamber opposite the communicating passage, the member also having an end valve section for opening and closing said passage, with the spring acting normally to maintain the passage closed by the valve section, diaphragm means in intermediate sealed disposition within the second chamber, means for venting to the atmosphere that part of the second chamber at the side of the diaphragm means away from the outlet to the furnace, the diaphragm means deflecting in response to suction at the outlet side due to initiation of operation of the furnace, and actuator means extending from the diaphragm means through the passage to the piston valving member for applying such deflection of the former to the latter against the spring force, whereby the fuel line is normally closed and opened automatically by the valve assembly when the furnace becomes operative.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,507,073 9/1924 Lewis 137510 XR 1,647,755 11/1927 Stoetzel 137-510 3,198,481 8/1965 Bryant l37505.l8 XR 2,706,885 4/1955 Ostroff et a1. 137495 XR 2,706,968 4/1955 Smallpeice 137495 XR 3,103,949 9/1963 Fiorentini 137495 XR M. CARY NELSON, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT J. MILLER, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

